Pretty Shiny Horsey

Blizzard today released the new purchasable flying mount and in-game pet, costing €20 and €10 respectively for us European peeps. I already posted at length when the previous two purchasable vanity pets were released, so I won’t reiterate what I wrote there. Except that now Blizzard are adding mounts to the mix. A lot of people before said that it was only pets, what was the big deal? And maybe they had a point. A bunch of us however, predicted that this would just be the beginning of in-game purchases, and now with the very next release we have moved on to flying mounts, (Ghostcrawler didn’t give you your pony: he sold it to you). Which is much more impressive than any mount you can get as an in-game reward for doing really hard stuff. Blizzard is saying that they’ll give you shinies for doing stuff in-game but they’ll give you even nicer shinies if you pay them. Funny, I thought that we were paying them.

Whatever. I am now here to say that I am happy about this development. Yep, you heard it right. I like this news, I approve of this development. But not only as I am able to identify idiots in-game more easily now, (it’s easy to see a mount over a pet. What would be awesome would be to see players on their mounts in the little Dalaran park where you can land with their new pets out as well. It would be like the village idiot meeting place). I approve of this because people buying these items are helping to keep the monthly price of the game at the same level. They are subsidising my game experience. They are saving me money.

Thank you village idiots. Now stay out of the battlegrounds.

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12 Responses to “Pretty Shiny Horsey”

I have to say who cares? Why are people raging over this? It has been coming since other smaller games have proven it to work. Farmville for instance is the perfect example of a game that a lot of people play and pay cash to earn additional items.

I see no real issue with the sale of pets or mounts. To be honest, Blizzard has been dumbing the game down for years. You say they are helping to hold the price down for you, but the content they are providing pales in comparison to what they have provided in the past. Thus the idea of keeping the cost down is not so realistic. In acutality they are putting out an inferior product that you continue to pay the same price for and make additional funds from the people who they are now marketing the game for, the casual players.

So who is more stupid in this situation? The casual who knowingly is purchasing a vanity item and does not care? The player who says they care for the game and its content but continues to accept an inferior product that is being marketed for the casual?

I don’t think you could be anymore wrong about this issue when you speak of an inferior quality game. It may be inferior to YOU the minority of people who demand higher difficulties, but it appeals to the masses who demand softer penalties. Blizzard mearly tailored their game to appeal to the larger market the way any serious business would. If you don’t like it, then quit the game, quit your whining, forum trolling and blog lurking.

Obviously you wont, since you’re like everyone else who complains about the game. You will continue to pay and play and be one of those people who pays for an inferior product and you will whine about it continuously.

And to answer your question. YOU are the most stupid. Why? You fall into your own category.

I could not be any more wrong? Well you have your opinion and I have mine correct? I do not think the content is anywhere near as strong as it once was and they failed to even deliver everything that they promised in the last two expansions, but I digress on that point.

You in fact state the same thing I did that Blizzard has designed their game for the casual player. I do not mean that in a negative way, I simply stated a fact.

You seem to deem it necessary to attack me by saying I am whining, when in fact I am not whining, trolling, or lurking. I am expressing my opinion in a controlled way.

I am like everyone else. I play this game because I have friends who play and while other games have come up with good ideas, none of them have managed to get a solid game out there that lasts.

And the answer to my question was rhetorical. I did not mean to insult the writer of the blog, but rather ask a question. Which was who is more stupid? The group of players who play the game in a casual manner and love buying in game items or the group of players who refuse to buy it, rage over it, and feel they are at least getting something out of it like the cost of the game being held to $15 per month for a product which IS inferior in my humble opinion.

So while I respect your opinion, perhaps leave the name calling and insults out of it because you completely missed the subtlety of what I was saying. Best of luck in whatever you do.

I read through your older post on vanity pets and I don’t disagree with you, but it just doesn’t stir any emotional response from me.

It puts me in mind of mobile/cell phones – do I need a phone that takes photos, let’s me access the internet and has an app for cooking recipies ? Nope, but my teenage daughter does because “they’re cool”… I suspect that Blizz will make a fortune out of the teenagers who play the game and have the same attitude or more realistically their parents who fund these fads.

Thankfully my children don’t play WoW (since I play it’s way to uncool – result !) so I won’t be parting with any money for this particular frippery.

I think the whole concept of selling things like vanity pets and even mounts is nothing horrible. I think it is a natural progression that the entire gaming industry is going to follow. Like it or not, it is here to stay.

I would be more inclined to become mad about it if they started selling high end gear for PVE or PVP. I doubt that will be the case in the forseeable future so no worries either way.

Me personally, I have not bought anything out of the Blizzard pet store. I do however have the RAF mount and buy the trading card packs in hopes of finding loot cards just because it is something fun to do on the side. To me it is really the same thing except the packs are a chance where as the store is guaranteed.

[…] accountants on this one, if the customer is prepared to buy it then by all means let them have it. Adam makes a nice point about the people who buy these items help keep the subscription down for the […]

Needless to say, I couldn’t disagree with the author of this post more. Like Rather, I ask, “why are so many people raging over this?” The mount gives absolutely no in-game edge except the “enhance e-peen ability” while AFKing in Dalaran.

I don’t care if people have the mount or not. I think it’s a waste of money but I certainly won’t label someone who has it as an “idiot”.

I’m sure the author has bought some luxury item in the past. And just because some other luxury item (i.e. the shiny pony in this case) is not worth it to him, he labels the purchasers “idiots”. Smacks of double-standards to me.

Firstly I am anything but being enraged over this issue. Whenever I see one of these little fairy pony mounts in-game I chuckle to myself.
Secondly, they are most definitely not a luxury item. A luxury item is something for which demand increases more than proportionally than income rises. This is 25 bucks. If you live in Africa where this is a months wages then I’ll grant you that this is a luxury item. Here, no dice.
Thirdly, I label the people who spend their money to buy this as idiots precisely because the only reason to purchase one is to show off your epeen in Dalaran. I don’t drink $200 tequila to show off. I drink it because it’s amazing. This mount isn’t even that. It looks kind of pathetic.

It does look pretty bad. And it helps people see you from much farther away. I just rolled on a PvP realm so I’m relatively thankful to see these idiots prancing around on their “Come kill me” mounts so I can sneak away safe and sound.

But honestly, the only reason at all to have that mount is so you can sit in town and look cool with it. But you don’t look cool when 50 other people in the same area have the same mount. It’s basically the same as showing up with your racial mount. Good for you, but all those other people have it as well. $25 well spent.

[…] shit, those with money but not time can by a My Little Pony and prance across the skies, and (as Adam and Sven both, with surprising sanity for the discussion of this issue I’ve seen around the […]